This Sunday is the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Trinity 13), and I was thinking about having Immanuel sing “Jesus, Grant That Balm and Healing” (LSB 421). I was looking at it out of LSB and couldn’t find the lines that made it in the past a must-sing for this Sunday. Here’s the line from Lutheran Worship (#421): “Where the wound is and the hurting, Pour in oil and cleansing wine.” I’ve always loved how that interprets the Good Samaritan parable Christologically. So I was initially disappointed to learn that Lutheran Service Book alters the text: “Every wound that pains or grieves me By Your wounds, Lord, is made whole.” However, that is a better translation of Johann Heermann’s original: “Gib für alles, was mich kränket, Mir aus deinen Wunden Saft.” So, while I’ll miss the old text because it was a wonderful teaching tool, I cannot complain. It seems F. Samuel Janzow often took great liberties in his translations.
Pour in oil and cleansing wine
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Not that my German is great, but doesn't "deine Wunden Saft" mean the "Juice of Thy Wounds". This would seem to be more in line the with "Cleansing Wine" of the Eucharist?
Saft is "juice" but can also mean "sap," "liquid," and also is sometimes, I *think*, a reference to blood or essential force. I imagine that's where Janzow got the idea, but he's taking a lot of liberties. This is the problem with translating poetry into poetry – it's nearly impossible!